Disabled people don't exist to inspire you.
Welcome to this week’s edition of Stacks & Spoons, a weekly newsletter for bookish girls, gays and theys, written by author Jen Wilde. If you enjoy it, make sure to subscribe here.
CW: this post discusses ableism.
Hardly a week goes by without a morning news program sharing a viral video about a disabled person being discriminated against. It’s never framed as discrimination, though. They are packaged as tales of courage and strength, people with “special needs” overcoming their disability. That’s the only way a story about disabled people would make it onto a morning show. People want comfort and inspiration while they sip their first coffee of the day, not a reality check about how our communities fail marginalized people.
The latest entry into the Inspiration Porn Diaries has been shared on USA Today, ABC News, Fox, and CBS. It’s a video of a father hoisting his paralyzed son from his wheelchair and onto his back, then carrying him up a long flight of train station stairs in Berlin. The elevator was broken, and with no other accessibility options, this became their only choice.
The caption CBS shared with the video framed it as a story of heroism and strength, even using the arm flexing emoji. But if you look at it through a disability justice lens, it’s not a heartwarming story but evidence of the barriers disabled people face and how normalized they are.
The first thing I thought about when watching the video was the danger the father and son were forced to put themselves in. One misstep on those stairs could cause so much harm to both of them. The mother carrying the wheelchair up those stairs also risks injury, and potentially damaging the wheelchair itself.
Yes, those parents are showing strength and care for their son. But they – the parents and the disabled son – should not have been put in that position in the first place.
Rebranding systemic discrimination as feel-good human interest stories only serves those with more privilege. In this case, it’s ableism as inspiration.
And it’s not even the productive kind of inspiration. I’ve heard people say things about me or other disabled people like, “You’re such an inspiration!”
I inspire you? How? To do what?
Are you inspired to interrogate your internalized ableism?
Do I inspire you to fight for disability justice?
Have you been inspired to request more accessibility at your workplace or at events you attend?
Are you inspired to support disabled creators? Will you buy my books about disabled characters?
What about wearing a mask – something that protects disabled and immunocompromised people – have you been inspired to do something as basic as that?
No. Usually, when people say they are “inspired” by a disabled person, they mean “Wow! Seeing you, a disabled person, not hate yourself even though you’re *gasp* disabled, really gives me a whole new perspective on life!” They are looking at disabled people through the tired, ableist idea that disabled = terrible, bad, burden, and using us as props to make themselves feel better about their lives. They do not see disabled people as fully human.
In other words, they are using us as inspiration porn. First coined by disability advocate, writer, and speaker Stella Young, inspiration porn describes the way non-disabled people objectify disabled people as “inspiring” simply for living in their disabled bodies. The way CBS framed that video is a perfect example of inspiration porn.
When the media frames stories like this, it reinforces the idea that systemic ableism and failures in infrastructure are solely the problem of disabled people and not something the whole of society should be concerned with. Let’s zoom out for a second and consider other folks who could be affected by that broken elevator: a mother with a stroller; an elderly person; an unhoused person carrying all their belongings on their back; someone who’s just exhausted from working on their feet all day; or someone like me with invisible disabilities, who risks a flare up from overexertion.
Providing accessibility benefits everybody. But even if it didn’t, accessibility should be prioritized because disabled people are human beings who deserve to live and move in society just like non-disabled people. All people deserve safe access to the outside world.
The only comfort I’m getting from this most recent viral video is from all the replies calling out CBS and pointing out how traumatic and dehumanizing it can be for disabled people to navigate a world that was designed to exclude them.
I’ve never seen so many people defend disability rights on social media like this before. A few years ago, that CBS tweet would have garnered so much love. The replies and quote tweets calling out CBS for its lack of disability perspective, and also the wider systemic problems facing the disabled community, prove that people have been listening.
Even though it’s a small corner of the internet and a small win in the grand scheme of things, it’s still a win.
And now more than ever, it’s important to count every win we get.
IT’S BEEN OVER 120 DAYS.
Contact your reps to demand a ceasefire:
Find a protest to attend wherever you are in the world.
And remember to keep sharing and amplifying Palestinian voices. Don’t stop talking about Gaza.
None of us are free until all of us are free.